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St. Nazaire Raid
The St. Nazaire Raid or Operation Chariot was a British raid on the well defended Normindie dock in St. Nazaire, France. It later turned out to be a success. The attack was carried out by British Commandoes and the Royal Navy on March 28, 1942. The goal of the attack was to destroy the only dock big enough to hold and repair the "Tirpitz" or any other large warships. There were four other seperate attempts to sink the Tirpitz but, all of which failed. The rather obsolete HMS Campbeltown and eighteen other ships left Falmouth and crossed the English channel on the 26th of March.http://www.combinedops.com/St%20Nazaire.htm When they arrived at St. Nazaire on the 28th the HMS Campbeltown was rammed into the Normindie dock gates. It had also been prepacked with explosives that detonated later that day. Thus rendering the dock unusable for the rest of the war. The British Commandoes had to fight there way through the town. The consequences were high, only two-hundred and twenty eight men would return to Britain alive, one-hundred and sixty-nine commandoes were killed and two-hundred and fifteen were captured. Eighty-nine decorations were given to the commandoes. This also included five Victoria Crosses. The raid is now known as "The Greatest Raid of All"1231234 Planning The Raid had three main objectives: The destruction of the Normindie dock, Destroy any U-boat or other german vessel, and the destruction of the gates of the Basin de St. Nazaire along with water pumping machinery and other machiner/installations. The intial plan was to have to destroyers, one filled with explosives and rammed into the dock gates and the other to evacuate the commandoes after the first destroyer detonates. Also while the first destroyer is rammed in the dock, commandoes would attack gun emplacements, search lights, etc. Then the RAF would carry out several air raids in the area.When the Admirality saw the plan they quickly refused to support it; the RAF also complained about the plan.http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/raid_st_nazaire_1942.htmThey came up with a new and revised plan which would have one destroyer to ram the gate and the other smaller craft to transport the commandoes. It took about ten days to upgrade the Campbeltown for the raid. The Battle The raiding party was first noticed by the germans on the docks at about 01:15 but they were not fired upon until 01:22. The force tried to trick the germans by trying to convince them it was friendly fire. Their deception only lasted a few minutes. The party was only one mile away from the dock gates. They soon were under heavy fire. The HMS Campbeltown rammed the gate and the commandoes boarded the docks. There were five demolition teams and two Assault teams making a total of seven teams. They destroyed four gun emplacements and two tug boats. The commandoes later realized evacuation by sea is not possible. The commandoes tried to escape through the town but, they were soon surrounded. Although they did clean up pockets of German resistance, they eventually ran out of ammunition were forced to surrender. Before they surrendered however, the HMS Campbeltown's demolition charges detonated, killing about four-hundred German soldiers and officers who were investigating the ship.http://www.historynet.com/raid-on-st-nazaire-operation-chariot-during-world-war-ii.htm/9 Not all the commadoes were captured though, five Comandoes had managed to escape through Spain. References Category:Raids